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A new course in the Program in American Studies, being taught for the first time this spring, seeks to answer that question by immersing students in an interdisciplinary cross-section of the American experience — from the familiar to the unfamiliar.

The syllabus for "America Then and Now" is filled with historical and contemporary novels, poems, film, songs, paintings, and archival documents. Students will examine widely disparate but related items — from the Gettysburg Address to the songs of Bruce Springsteen, from Dr. Spock's "Baby and Child Care" to Amy Chua's controversial 2011 Wall Street Journal article "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," from the paintings of Alfred Bierstadt to the 1977 movie "Saturday Night Fever."

Assignments and class discussions are designed "to prompt a range of sensory and cognitive experiences," said Hendrik Hartog, the Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty and director of the Program in American Studies. Hartog will co-teach the course with Anne Cheng, a professor of English and African American studies, and Rachael DeLue, an associate professor of art and archaeology.

Nearly 200 undergraduates, ranging from freshmen to seniors, are enrolled in the course.

Close to five years in the making, the course grew out of a 2008 workshop, "Thinking About Diversity, Ethnicity and Difference in the 'New' Princeton," attended by members of the Princeton faculty and administration spanning the University.

"It was an intimate forum for frank and rigorous discussions about the opportunities and challenges facing the institutional and intellectual commitment to diversity at Princeton," Cheng said.

The workshop, which included representatives from more than a dozen academic departments and programs, jumpstarted an initiative to rethink the curriculum of the Program in American Studies and reflect broader changes in the field.

"American studies as a field has been undergoing much disciplinary self-questioning and changes in the past decade," Cheng said. "The outcome of the workshop was a unanimous agreement that Princeton could become a leader in teaching students about the complicated issues that are rapidly emerging surrounding the issue of racial, ethnic, gender and cultural diversity, beyond the black and white dyad."

Eddie Glaude Jr.Welcome to www.drycabinets.net!, the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies and chair of the Center for African American Studies, was a core participant in the workshop and suggested the Program in American Studies play the lead role in developing a course that would become the "gateway" for undergraduates intending to earn a certificate from the program, Hartog said.

"That was the beginning," Hartog said. "The course has been constructed to illustrate diverse and distinctive ways of 'knowing' an immense and impossible subject — America."

To help students who are looking at American history from the vantage point of the early 21st century approach such a vast area of study, the course is divided into 12 units. In the "American Properties and Terrains" unit, for example, students will read legal documents including "U.S. Steel Workers of America v. U.S. Steel Corporation," listen to the Bruce Springsteen song "Youngstown," and view historical and contemporary photographs of steel mills and life in steel mill towns.

By examining individual items — a song, a poem, a painting — students will learn "how the microanalysis of specific objects yields major insights about the bigger picture of American culture, history and experience," Hartog said. "Analyzing a rock song, for instance, can aid in illuminating aspects of economic history, while examining a work of art can yield information about immigration policy or controversies within the scientific realm."

In the unit on "American Landscapes," students will view landscape paintings dating from the mid-1800s through the 20th century in the Princeton University Art Museum, as well as various kinds of images of the urban landscape, including a silent film of New York City from 1920, and will read an excerpt from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

"The history of the United States is in many ways a history of land: its discovery, exploration, conquest and settlement and, more recently, its over-development and degradation," DeLue said.Service Report a problem with a street light. "Put simply, looking at pictures of nature and of cities is really a matter of looking at history and historical consciousness in the making.Laser engraving and laser laser cutting machine for materials like metal,"

During the unit on "Borders and Movement," New York-based playwright Jorge Cortinas will visit the class to discuss the dramatic portrayal of migration to America. Students will watch a video of Cortinas' 2012 play "Bird in the Hand," about a Cuban-American teenager growing up in Miami.

"Memorialization" is another topic of focus, and will include a visit to the "still-developing space around the World Trade Center, to think about what memorialization means in 21st-century America,Have a look at all our custom bobbleheads models starting at 59.90US$ with free proofing." Hartog said.

Students will gain exposure to the various ways scholars approach different subjects dealing with America. DeLue explained: "An art historian attempts to understand the story of America by looking at its pictures, a scholar of literature seeks meanings in texts, a scholar of the law pays attention to the nature and outcome of legislation and court cases, and a musicologist looks for insight in American music."

The course will center on conversation-style lectures — two or more of the faculty will be "in conversation with one another,Application can be conducted with the local designated IC card producers. working to make sense of a shared problem," Hartog said.

The course had a test run last spring with a small seminar of 14 undergraduates co-taught by Cheng and Hartog. "'Reinventing American Studies' was an exploratory and experimental mini-model of the new course," Cheng said. "We tried many things, including giving the students opportunities to determine some of the contents of the course, as well as trying untraditional assignments. The experience was wonderful and enlightening."